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The best and worst games of 1996.
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Spycraft: The Great Game
The subtitle "The Great Game" may seem like a lofty claim, but in the case of Spycraft, the designers were correct. Unfortunately, Spycraft was the most overlooked game of 1997. Created in collaboration with former heads of the CIA and KGB, Spycraft has been lauded by all who played it - a rare phenomenon in a medium where the division between hard-core and casual gamers is as distinct as the Mason-Dixon line. Because Spycraft defies easy categorization (it contains both arcade and strategy elements, as well as a healthy dose of video-based scenes), it has never found a broad audience. Hopefully, this glaring oversight by the gaming community will be rectified when the upcoming DVD version is released later this year.
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MissionForce: CyberStorm
Those shrewd enough to look past the brain-numbing lime green box and the me-too name of Sierra's 1997 futuristic turn-based strategy game discovered an intense, sophisticated alternate reality where man fights machine to the bitter end. Though popular strategy games limit the player to using any number of pre-conceived combat units, CyberStorm allows the capable commander to customize his massive, robotic army to the extreme. Each unit can be equipped with a staggering assortment of weapons, armor, and special devices, not to mention one of many disturbingly lifelike synthetic pilots. CyberStorm also features a truly captivating plot, and to top it off each box contains two copies of the game for multiplayer purposes. An awesome title in every respect, MissionForce: CyberStorm is held in high esteem by all those fortunate enough to have played it.
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Most Disappointing Game:Gene Wars
Bullfrog's entry into the real-time wargame genre was highly anticipated by those who have appreciated their inventive games in the past. The makers of Populous and Magic Carpet making their own twisted brand of Command & Conquer clone? It seemed like a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, the end result suffers from a hostile interface and a serious need for some gameplay balancing.
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Drowned God
An adventure game that would argue that aliens have had a hand in the history of human events? Written by a guy named Harry Horse who actually believes the theory? "Count us in," we cheered with schwas in our eyes at early reports of Inscape's Drowned God. (Those of you who don't know what a schwa is probably couldn't care less about Harry Horse or his theories.) Unfortunately, the great premise is buried like the mysteries of the ages themselves under a mediocre Myst clone. Does anyone else sense a conspiracy?
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History of Xmen
Despite all the hype surrounding the upcoming feature film, Marvel Comics' X-Men have been around much longer than many people realize. The team of mutant superheroes didn't become popular right away when it was first created in the 1960s by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the creative forces behind some of Marvel's greatest characters like The Incredible Hulk and the Fantastic Four. The original X-Men looked nothing like their modern-day counterparts, and the X-Men series remained a second-string comic book throughout its first run. It went into a reprint hiatus during the late 1960s, but was reborn in the 1970s. The series became most successful in the 1980s, when Marvel's Chris Claremont wrote some the best X-Men stories.
Then in the early 1990s the X-Men underwent a cosmetic makeover. With substantially different artwork, costumes, and layout design, the series was re-established as Marvel's premier comic book. The first issue of the new X-Men series sold eight million copies, a record sales figure for the time. Marvel was certainly pleased: The comic that had performed poorly in the 1960s was giving Spider-Man a run for the money 30 years later. Marvel's focus quickly shifted, and suddenly the X-Men were everywhere. There was an animated cartoon, posters, T-shirts, video games, and so many spin-offs that it was hard to keep track of the team's exploits. Characters like Professor X, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, and Wolverine became increasingly popular with Marvel's readers.
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